Does your family struggle with putting down the phones and tablets at meal time? Bookmark and print this article to keep in your diaper-bag or purse!
Meal-times are an excellent opportunity to build language and social skills. Keep everyone entertained and engaged while dining out (or in) with these activities!
1. Low-cost “Pictionary”
- While waiting for your meals, use a pen and paper to sketch drawings that the others have to guess as you draw
- You can provide a category for your drawing to help narrow the guesses
- Pass the pen around for everyone to get a chance to be artist and guesser
2. Poll the table
- Everyone loves to talk about themselves. Go around the table asking questions about favorites. What is your favorite color? What is your favorite sport? Who is your favorite Paw Patroller? Where is your favorite place to spend a sunny day?
- Increase the conversation by asking “Why?” to responses
- Encourage the kids to ask questions back to the adults and to each other
3. Play “I Spy”
- Look around the restaurant and/or table and give 2-3 clues about an object in the vicinity, “I spy something that is white, a rectangle, and wipes”
- Using clues related to size, color, shape, and use helps to the listeners to create a good picture of the object in their minds
- Switch around who is giving the clues and who is guessing
4. Reminisce
- Bring up a favorite memory (a holiday, vacation, day at home, the first time you…)
- Have everyone share what they remember about that event
- Encourage talk about what they remember seeing, feeling, smelling, who was there
5. Rhyme
- Identify an object at the table and go around the table having each person say a word that rhymes with it
- For younger kids you can provide simpler words that may not be present at the table (i.e. hat, dog, pig)
6. Find the Sugar
- Lay out three napkins and a sugar packet (or spoon, crayon)
- Tell the others at your table to cover/close their eyes, and hide the sugar packet underneath one of the three napkins
- Tell the others to open their eyes and select someone to guess which napkin the sugar is under
- If the children are old enough encourage them to use “left”, “right”, or “center” when identifying a napkin. For younger children, you could label the napkins with 1,2,3 or A,B,C
7. Bring back the oldies but goodies!
- Play games of hangman, tic-tac-toe, and (personal favorite) MadLibs
Follow it up with a book: Table Talk by Julia Cook
